February 1998

Quality vs. quantity

Dilemma encountered by Education Department in seat distribution

By Chloris Ho

The Endeavourers Fung Sui Cheung Memorial Primary School in Chai Wan will be closed by 2000. The local press has claimed the Education Department ignored the huge need for a high quality school by students and their parents. And it underestimated the amount of primary students in the district in 1993.

The main argument by the press was that the Education Department refused to make any amendments or admit its wrong estimates. The Education Department was criticized for being “not flexible enough”.

However, a spokesman for the Education Department,explained the situation differently.

“The school is now located at Hing Wah Estate. It had to move just because of the redevelopment of that estate. And the school site provided in 1993 at Wah Ha Street was just for temporary usage.

“In 1994, we made an agreement with Endeavourers Hong Kong, the organization which operates this school. A new school site will replace the temporary site. Fung Sui Cheung Primary School will be closed down by 2000,” he said.

The new school site, in Yiu Tung Estate in Sau Kei Wan, is located in a different school district from the original site. It started to operate in 1994 and is known as The Endeavourers, Hong Kong Leung Lee Sau Yu Memorial Primary School.

According to the Education Department spokesman, newspaper accounts were incorrect. Everything was within the plans of the Education Department. Statistics from the Education Department indicate there are about 2,000 vacancies in primary schools in Chai Wan. The Department has not underestimated the demand.

“Parents know that there are vacancies in some schools within Chai Wan. But the quality of those schools is commonly known as bad. Who would want their children to study at a poor school?” said Mr. Leung Yiu Hung, an Eastern District Board member.

He added, “Vacancies continuously exist in certain schools, like Lung Kong Primary School, a whole-day school which has only nine classes, leaving 15 classrooms empty.”

In fact, not many schools in Chai Wan are completely full like Fung Sui Cheung Primary School.

One woman whose son is studying in a primary school in Chai Wan agrees with Mr. Leung.

“Many parents here consider Lung Kong Primary School a fairly low quality school and we avoided choosing this school for our children,” said she.

Moreover, according to Mr. Leung, over 60 percent of children living in Chai Wan study in schools outside Chai Wan.

This is a fairly high rate. Mr. Leung said the rate in other districts is about 16 percent.

The spokesman for the Education Department refused to comment on this figure, except to say that the figure was not supplied by headquarters of Education Department.

Mr. Leung said he got this figures from Ms. Ting Wan Yuk, senior education officer in the Eastern District Education Office.

The Education Department spokesman said the Department counts not only the total number of children who have to receive 9-year free education, but also how many students really need a place in the district they live in. The Department estimates the requirement of places by the data collected from central allocation in July each year.

As Mr. Leung said there is an adverse cycle to having so many students rushing out and leaving so many vacancies in their own districts.

For the present situation, improving the quality of schools in Chai Wan is the best remedy. The Education Department said they are working on this.

Mrs K. W. W. Wu, senior education officer of the Schools Division Headquarters of the Education Department, said that most aided and government schools in Hong Kong are monitored by the Education Department based on the designated regulations.

Those regulations include the Education Ordinance.

“The district education officers visit the schools annually. But other visits are possible if schools are subjects of complaints,” said Mrs. Wu.

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